The Young Man and the Sea
by gerge Lucass
Summary: This is a story by Riley for the podcast Grand Moff Talkin' (They read fanfiction and add sound effects and stuff, it's great you should listen). I, gerge Lucass, am hosting it out of the kindness of my heart.


**Chapter I**

The sounds of the open sea had a calming effect on young Torga. When he closed his eyes and focused on the waves lapping against the side of the vessel, he could almost push the thought of the coming battle from his mind. That was, until his father's harsh voice cut through the calm.

"Torga, focus! Remember why we are here."

Torga opened his eyes, "Sorry, I'm trying to focus."

His father's gaze softened, "Try not to let fear overtake you, you have been trained for this."

"I know", Torga said, "and I trust in your training I just…"

Torga's eyes shifted to the vast ocean in front of them, the endless sprawl awakening ancient ingrained fears in the young man.

"You don't think you're ready.", his father said.

Torga bowed his head in shame, upset at himself for showing weakness in front of his father, his silence communicating more than he felt capable of saying himself.

Torga's father let the silence linger for an uncomfortable amount of time before finally speaking.

"Did I ever tell you of when I first went to hunt the Opee sea killer, Torga?"

His father looked wistfully towards to sea, his eyes fogged over.

"No, I mean, I know you went when you were very young but.." Torga said.

"Yes, seven cycles old", his father said, "I didn't feel ready at all. But your grandfather put his faith in me. He had seen me hunt for the clan, he had seen me take responsibility. He had seen the respect the Boss had for our family because of my actions..."

Torga knew this was his father's version of encouragement, but as usual it left him feeling as if his father was just comparing his myriad accomplishments against his son's meager ones. He tried to pay attention during this lecture but found his mind wandering past his father to the wheel of the ship. As his father's voice droned in the background, Torga kept thinking of his desire to be back in Otoh Gunga. He always felt more comfortable under the sea, rather than on top of it, and he never understood the need to uphold the outdated traditions of previous generations.

Suddenly there was a sharp jolt that brought him back from his thoughts. His father's head snapped to the front of the ship where the wheel had abruptly turned itself back towards their home. Though he tried to hide it, panic crept into Torga's voice.

"Is that the Opee? Did we find it?"

His father rushed to the wheel to keep the ship from capsizing and to get them back on course.

"No, we aren't far enough out yet, and haven't even laid the bait for it, this...was something else."

Torga felt himself calm as the realization hit him. He knew what it is. Well, to a point. He had discovered something about himself lately. When his mind wandered, which it often did, things that he thought about usually started happening. Not in the way he wanted, most of the time. More often than not it turned out like what just happened with the ship, he thought of wanting to go home, and the wheel turned itself in that direction, nearly capsizing the boat.

He had been thinking to himself for too long and noticed his father's eyes on him.

"Oh uhm…" he stammered, "I'm just as confused as you, father. But we're back on course now and I'm feeling better. Thank you for speaking with me."

Though he had almost opened up to him only minutes ago, Torga could see that his father's metaphorical energy shield was back up, and he looked as stern as ever. His father only grunted and turned back to the wheel. As the sun set and the night sky came, Torga found himself unable to sleep, instead looking towards the heavens and found that vast expanse infinitely more enthralling than the one he found himself confined to.

**Chapter II**

At dawn the next morning, Torga knew that they had to be nearing the prime hunting spot for Opee Sea Killers. The rising sun brought many smaller fish to the surface to bathe in its light, thus tempting the Opee to rise and feast. This meant that soon he would be expected to face the mighty beast and attempt to slay it, like every man in his tribe before him.

He wanted to make his family proud, but feelings of doubt kept him from feeling confident that he even could. They had been awake for hours before either Torga or his father felt the need to speak. It was Torga who broke the silence first.

"I was wondering if you had any last minute advice for me, I know you've told me a million times what I should do, I just want to...make...sure…"

His voice trailed off as he noticed his father was no longer paying attention to him, instead he looked intently behind Torga, almost directly into the rising sun. Torga turned to see what had caught his father's attention, shielding his eyes from the morning light. In the distance he saw...something in the sky. At first it looked like two Peko Peko birds chasing after one another, but this was too far out into the ocean for them to be. It had to be something else.

Gradually the two flying objects danced their way closer, and Torga heard a sound unlike anything he had encountered before.

"Gods, what is that awful noise?!" his father said. "It sounds like the death knell of a falumpaset, only somehow worse."

It didn't bother Torga, in fact he found it fascinating. He was enraptured and ran to the side of the boat in excitement, his earlier apprehension fading away in this new mystery.

"Do you think they'll come closer?" he turned to his father, only to see genuine fear on his face. This was something Torga had never seen before, but he was too curious to spend much time thinking about it. As he turned back to the flying creatures a red bolt of light shot past his face, and he felt the heat of 20 suns burn his flesh. He stumbled to the floor, as splinters of wood shot everywhere across the deck. The mast of the ship was falling right towards him, but right before it crushed him he was tackled out of the way.

He heard his father yelp in pain as the mast pinned his legs to the deck. He turned back to look at the flying creatures with a renewed fear, just in time to see the green and yellow one in front explode into a ball of flames before his eyes. He watched helplessly as metal wreckage flew straight towards them, tearing whole chunks from the side of their vessel. He watched the horizon ever so slowly start to rise and knew that meant his ship was sinking.

His father's moan brought him back into the moment as he looked back to see just how bad it was. Torga moved to try and lift the giant mast from his father's legs, but it was beyond him. The noise of the second flying creature slowly increased and Torga turned to look at it as it came to a stop mere meters away from them, knowing this moment would be their last.

Yet it continued to just hover there, and Torga could now clearly see this wasn't some kind of creature at all, but a flying machine made of metal, and at the front was a glass dome. Inside that dome was a kind of being he had never seen before.

He stood to face it, putting himself in between this monstrous machine and his helpless father. He would not let them kill his father. He stood defiantly, ready to accept any outcome. After a few moments the dome began to rise, and the being jumped onto the outside of their machine.

The woman in front of him wore simple loose fitting robes, had dark green skin, a face unlike any he had seen among a gungan tribe, and where a normal person's ears should be, only two round antennae protruding from her head.

"If you want him, you'll have to go through me first", Torga said.

Immediately he felt embarrassment. What a cheesy thing to say, and obviously if this person wanted to, she could go right through Torga in an instant. Still, he held his ground. The being spoke.

"Ka tala neech, doon gon nin seen da choka", she said.

Though he didn't understand what she said, her tone didn't sound threatening to Torga. He relaxed.

"I don't understand. I don't know what you're saying or why you attacked us!" he said.

Again she said something he couldn't decipher.

He felt his anger rising as she took a step forward and raised her hand. He frantically looked around for anything he could grab to defend himself when he heard a giant snap behind him. Torga turned to see the mast that trapped his father rise into the air, slowly move off the edge of the ship and fall harmlessly into the ocean. Mystified he turned back to the stranger from the stars as she raised her other hand and his boat began to lift out of the water and back to where it belonged. As pieces of the wreckage began to find their way back together to repair the ship, Torga found himself feeling light headed.

He turned to say something to the stranger only to hear a voice in his head. It wasn't in his language yet he understood every word of it.

"Fear not, young one, I mean you no harm"

That was the last thing he remembered hearing before falling to the deck, darkness consuming him.

**Chapter III**

Torga was falling. The wind rushed past him as he continued his descent to the bottom. What the bottom held he did not know. How did he get here? Was the stranger responsible for this? Where was his father?

The thought of his father in the hands of this stranger from the stars brought a burning anger towards the surface. He wouldn't let anything happen. He never felt a strong connection with his father, but that didn't give this invader the right to harm anyone.

As Torga continued to fall it started to feel hot. Red creeped into the edges of his vision, and he fell even faster towards the end.

With a jolt Torga shot up from the deck of the boat, his eyes searching for his father.

There was the stranger, bent over his father's unmoving body, her hand on his forehead, whispering something he couldn't understand.

All the stress and anger from the past few days finally rose to the surface, and Torga channelled all of that energy through his body and expelled it through his voice.

"_**Get away from him!"**_

It was louder than he thought possible, louder than even the flying machine the stranger came in on. The sound echoed across the open sea in an unnatural way. He fell to the deck, exhausted. But he got what he wanted, the stranger stumbled away from his father and turned towards Torga, drawing an energy weapon from her belt solely from instinct.

He couldn't be sure, but he imagined the look on her face was pure shock.

She examined him for a few moments, then slowly returned the weapon to her belt and regained her composure. The voice again in his head. It was as if many people were speaking at once, some in languages he didn't understand, a few in those he did.

"I told you not to worry, young Torga, I mean neither you or your father any harm." the voices said.

"How...how do you know who I am?" Torga said.

"I am able to infer what you are thinking, I can hear and decipher your meaning." said the voices.

"That doesn't really explain anything. Who are you? Where do you come from? How can you do all of…" Torga gestured towards the hull of the ship and back to his head. "This?"

"My name is Neera, I am a traveller from the stars. I am a Jedi, a member of a sacred order, so in tune with nature around us that we can ask it to obey our commands, use it to bridge understanding between beings. I am sorry that my journey led to you in this way" she motioned towards the wreckage floating near them, banging against the side of their ship, "but I was in pursuit of someone seeking to harm your planet."

Torga was only finding partial success in understanding any of this.

"You come from the STARS?", he said "And you're a...Jedi...who can bend nature to your will. And you're really here to save us. Okay…"

Neera cocked her head to the side, "I did not say I bend nature to my will, it is interesting you would describe it that way…" she took a step towards him, her eyes searching his face, "You know the feeling of bending nature to your will, don't you, young Torga?"

"I wouldn't say I can do that just...sometimes I want things to happen and they just...happen." Torga said.

Neera nodded, confirming what she had already sensed.

"You have a strong connection to The Force, young Torga. This is what allows us such ability as to ask nature around us to do as we will."

Somehow this made sense to Torga. He had known for several years now that he was different. He could never do the things others in his clan did, he could never achieve what his father had, yet things always had a way of working out for him.

"The Force…" he said. "I have the Force."

Neera chuckled. "The Force is with you, yes, though it is not something one possesses, in the true meaning of the word."

The humor from her face drained as she became more serious, "Though I sense more in you than the force, Torga. The Force is two parts of a whole, those two sides constantly in battle with one another. The Light and the Dark. We each must struggle with the two in our own way, and you are no different." she adopted the stern look he had seen all too often on his father's face. "When you shouted at me, that was a culmination of something very deep within you, Torga, something very Dark."

He had known he was calling on his anger to assist him. He had done it many times before. He said as much.

"But my anger...it stopped you from...well I thought from harming my father."

Neera softened. "That's true, it did pull my attention away. And deep down your desire was to protect your father, that is not a bad thing. However drawing from your anger is what gave you that power in that moment, that is not how a Jedi relies on using their power."

"I don't understand," Torga said, "if I was able to accomplish my goal, I don't see how it could be a bad thing."

Neera contemplated for a moment.

"Hmm, sit with me" She moved towards the middle of the deck and sat down, her legs crossed. Torga joined her.

"The dark side is tempting in many ways, it has a warmth that most Jedi do not experience in their lifetimes, a cold and calloused bunch my peers can be. Soon though, that warmth from the darkness begins to overtake, the temperature rises and rises until logic and reason no longer have an effect on your actions. You lose control in service of a need to feel the warmth that using such terrible power can bring to you. And like all things that begin to heat, you soon will find yourself burning as an uncontrollable blaze until you must be snuffed out, or bring ruin to all around you. That is not a path one flirts with, without first thinking of where it all ends."

"Now the light side may, at first glance, seem cold, calculating, unforgiving and...lonely. And for many who follow it, that is alright. But there are those who cannot live in such a way, no, in fact it does not seem like LIVING at all. After all, what is the point of using your talents to only help others, with no regard as to yourself. If you give and you give AND YOU GIVE, would it not make sense that soon one becomes empty? Unable to give any more? At that point, one must be full of regret, no? Ah, but see, this is where the mystery of the force deepens. One who has found themselves in that situation will feel...peace...a calmness brought about by altruistic actions. Close your eyes, Torga.

Observe yourself awakening to the Force, feeling the galaxy's heartbeat for the first time. It is like a current that passes through you, carrying you with it to every place it touches. And the true secret of the Force, is that when you open yourself fully to the light, and live no longer for self, but for others...it's as the warmth of the sun, though without the glare. You can feel its light and heat, but there is no harshness to it. Think on this while I attend to your father."

Torga soon found himself lost in thought, eyes closed, concentrating on the meaning of Neera's words. Neera, satisfied, went back to his father and again put her hand to his forehead.

**Chapter IV**

Dusk soon approached, and repairs to the ship were nearing completion. It would need far more work once they got back home, but for now it was enough to get them there in the first place. Torga's father had awoken and was immediately distrustful of Neera, but after explaining that she meant them no harm, Neera herself being particularly good at convincing his father she was no threat, he calmed down and helped as much as he could in his weakened state.

Torga was busy trying to find dinner for them, pulling several fish from the water. His mind was still reeling from the many revelations from the day. Just a few short hours before, Torga felt as if his world was very narrow, with no room to explore the greater questions of life and purpose he's struggled with for years. Though his curiosity had always begged for him to explore what else was out there, reality always brought him back to what his life would be. He would become a man, he would hunt for his clan, he would find someone to join with and have children of his own, and someday he would take his own son on this very journey he so dreaded.

But now...now his future was like a blossoming Millaflower, whose always shifting, living tendrils pointed to not just this one inevitability, but many conceivable journeys. Torga was so preoccupied with what it all meant, that he didn't notice the convergence of hundreds of fish off the port side of the ship. He didn't notice the bubbling ocean indicating something quickly rising to the surface. So lost in thought was he that he didn't even register his father's voice calling to him, warning him of the impending doom.

Too late he awoke from his reverie, and found himself staring into the gaping maw of the Opee Sea Killer. As the giant beast rammed into the side of the boat the last thing Torga saw was the horror in Neera's eyes, and the terrified expression on his father's face. Then Torga saw only the ocean in front of him, and next, only darkness.

As soon as Neera saw the Opee would not be satisfied with only knocking one of them into the depths, she sprung into action, pulling the lightsaber from her belt and leaping towards the edge of the boat. She had never faced such a creature, and was at a disadvantage fighting something so big in the water, yet it was her duty to protect the innocent. She had failed Torga, but she would not fail his father.

Again and again the Opee would strike the ship, tearing more and more off each time. Neera would swing, but even if she got a solid swipe across the creature's back, the blade would deal only surface damage to it. The Opee had an outer shell tougher than most metals, she realized, despair creeping into her mind.

Torga's father was in bad shape, his body had gone slack on the deck of the ship. "_Perhaps it is for the best"_, Neera thought, _"he will be spared the knowledge of our fate."_

Neera could see the Opee in the distance turn, and start for the ship at full speed. This time she thought it would be too much for the damaged ship to handle. Soon she and Torga's father would be in the sea, her lightsaber not tuned for the water, and they would be defenseless against the instinctual viciousness of the sea-beast.

She calmed her thoughts, preparing for the next journey she would undertake, ready for what the Force willed, when she saw the Opee start to slowly rise from the water and fly towards them. She was not familiar with this animal, but it seemed highly improbable that it was capable of doing this on its own. It had now fully ascended from the water and slowed its pace towards them, flailing as it came to a stop. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the ship's mast rise from where it had again fallen and fly towards the Opee faster than an object of that size should have been able to go.

It struck the Opee in the eye, sinking deep into the creature. It let out a howl for but a moment, then went limp, falling back into the ocean and sinking beyond her sight.

Dumbfounded she looked around, grasping for an answer. She then saw Torga standing atop her ship, hands out, eyes closed. He looked as serene as any Master she had seen deep in meditation in the room of a thousand fountains. He slowly opened his eyes, and the serenity turned to shock, then glee, then perhaps fear at what he was able to do. He finally settled on concern, and jumped to his unconscious father on the boat below.

Neera contemplated as he tended to his father, she knew what she had to do. Never before had she discovered someone so naturally gifted, and while she had felt hints of the force in him before, she now looked at him and it felt as if the stars themselves radiated from within him.

He looked to her. "Torga," she said, "you can no longer stay here. You need training. You need the wisdom of my order to guide you through this transformation. Please, you must come with me. We can tend to your father, and take you home to get what you need, say goodbye to whom you wish, but I am asking that you join me."

He needed only a moment. "I don't need anything from home. We can take my father back, they'll find him and assume he made it back on his own. I...don't need to say goodbye. It might be best if they all think the Opee took me."

Neera looked skeptical. "Are you sure, Torga? You don't need to make this decision so quickly."

He smiled, "I made this decision long before today, Neera. I just never had the opportunity before now. My clan will mourn for a while, my father will have a new story of his talent for survival, life will continue as it always has on Naboo."

Neera looked sad. "It's possible things will soon change for your people, I'm afraid." she seemed somewhere else, but soon came back to the present. "But, whatever the future of your planet is, it will no doubt come to pass whether or not you are here. We can't change the tides of fate, Torga, merely swim along with them."

They led what remained of the boat along with Torga's father back to the clan, as close as they dared and watched from afar as they saw the clan recover the boat, and saw the healers start to tend to his father.

Torga thought back to the many times he was about to attempt something for the first time. He remembered the feeling of helplessness as he struggled to adapt to new situations, the feeling of unease deep within his stomach every time he was thrown into something unexpected. To his surprise he felt none of that now. As Neera turned the ship to the stars he felt a deep sense of calm wash over him. For once he wasn't looking back towards where he came from, he was looking straight ahead, staring down the unknown and for the first time Torga felt like he was where he was supposed to be.


End file.
